Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3-D

Here’s a new way to appreciate the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, by flying through the 10,000 galaxies in this deepest of all Hubble images. Watch the whole video if you need the background on the Hubble Deep Field and subsequent Ultra Deep Field. Start at about 3:00 if you just want to see the distances between the galaxies in this image. Nice.

AFAIU, a second, deeper view was in the works for re-imaging the HUDF-N & S before the loss of the ACS. You can bet those plans are now being implemented not only with ACS but also the newly refurbished WFC3 and the new spectrograph. Herschel is set to make a slew of observations of the deep-field sites, too, in the NIR and MIR portions of the EM spectrum along with many of the largest earth-bound telescopes (in the optical, NIR, radio, x-ray and submillimeter regimes). And of course, one cannot rule out the discovery of a new supernova or GRB or whatever lurks in these repeated deep observations of the sky. Thanks for the link to that animation, Tammy, it certainly made my day 🙂 .

On a related note, I noticed that many of the newly studied compact, massive, distant galaxies (including 1255-0) have designations stemming from searches made of the HDF N &S, the HUDF N & S, the GOODS survey treasure troves and the like. These are tremendously complicated observations even under the best of conditions (see the 29hr spectrogram obtained by the 8.2m Gemini South telescope and reported on by UT here: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/08/05/hubble-gemini-spot-hyperactive-stars-in-small-young-galaxies/ .